Hotet från rymden/plot
Biggles is test flying the Euro-shuttle in orbit with Ginger as navigator and Bebe Sunday as Flight Engineer. They make a successful re-entry and land at the Esrange test facility but the undercarriage catches fire due to hot brakes. Biggles makes his report but Raymond has sent an HS-125 executive jet for him and wants him back in London as soon as possible. One of Raymond's field operatives has uncovered an interesting document. A firm called Space Electronics is offering to launch satellites for developing countries from a base in the Buranga Highlands in the middle of Africa. The whole thing sounds like a front for something sinister. Raymond introduces Biggles to Major John Hunter and wants the two to proceed to Buranga to investigate. Biggles and Hunter depart for Buranda in a Dornier Do 27. They make a reconnaissance over the jungle. Nearing what appears to be a rocket base, Biggles fakes engine trouble and force lands. The guards aren't friendly. Although Hunter carries documents which prove he is a wildlife inspector and authorised to conduct studies of the effect of the base on the local fauna, the guards tell him they only recognise their own papers and want him to leave. Biggles "repairs" the fault and they take off. Hunter tells him that he saw the rockets at the base: only small craft, capable of no more than a 200 kg payload. Hunter wants a closer look, so Biggles puts the aircraft down in a clearing nearby. Hunter makes his way back to the perimeter of the rocket base while Biggles sets up a satellite link at the plane to relay Hunter's observations to London directly. At his observation post, Hunter reports that the small rocket he saw was being launched. Both Russian and American space tracking facilities soon pick up a large space station in orbit and suspect the other of launching it. But the station soon broadcasts a message: it is called Space Station Aries and it is armed with nuclear missles aimed at every capital in the world and would launch them if attacked. Meanwhile, Raymond in London receives a letter. It offers to sell the space station to Britain for 3 million pounds. They have three days to accept or the offer will be made to the Russians. Raymond plays for time and flies to Brussels to consult Nato headquarters. Meanwhile, his aide, Peters, is told to contact Hunter in Buranga and ask if the space station could have been launched from there. Hunter is definite it could not have--there is nothing remotely big enough at the base to launch a space station that size. Back in London, Raymond recalls Biggles and Hunter. He wants Biggles to take the Euro-shuttle up to have a closer look at the station, but to do this without being detected. As a precaution, Raymond wants to arm the shuttle with missiles. Back at Esrange, experts work out a flight plan to enable the shuttle to approach the station without being detected. Biggles, Algy, Ginger and Bebe suit up and the shuttle is mounted on top of a large aircraft, taken aloft and then launched into orbit. The shuttle approaches the station. Biggles arms his missiles but something strange is going on, or rather, not going on. The station does not appear to take any notice of them. Biggles decides to do an EVA using a space scooter. He lands on the station and makes a surprising discovery. The station is simply a large inflated plastic ring. There's nobody on board, just a transmitter with a tape recorder. Biggles tapes an explosive charge to the station and then returns to the shuttle. Once back on the ground, Raymond summons them back to London again. The owners of the Aries station have been in contact again. They now say there have a nuclear missile on Earth and will deploy it if payment is not made. The blackmailers want a meeting but only with one representative--the letter gives detailed instructions about how to make the rendezvous at a restaurant in Corsica. Raymond tells Biggles the threat is plausible--a nuclear missile had been stolen from a Nato base in West Germany a year ago. He wants Biggles to go to the meeting. Biggles is supposed to go alone but he senses danger and so wants to bring Algy and Ginger along. Bebe also wants to go but Biggles refuses. "There's a time and a place for skirts," he says. They flew to Corsica in a BN-2 Islander and Biggles and Algy drive into town for the rendezvous. Meanwhile Ginger tries to refuel the aircraft and discovers that Bebe has stowed away on board! He is not too happy so Bebe wanders off to do her own investigations. There's a Dornier Do 28A just arriving and its passenger gets off in a hurry. Bebe is suspicious and goes to take a closer look at its registration. Algy drops Biggles off at the restaurant Chez Andre for the rendezvous. He asks for the table of Monsieur Aries and settles down to wait. His contact arrives and demands three million to be paid into a numbered Lichtenstein account within seven days. If not, their nuclear missile would attack a target which has been chosen to put suspicion on both Nato and the Warsaw Pact. The contact leaves and Biggles tries to follow but an accomplice attacks and delays him. A waiter comes in to help and punches the accomplice out. The rescuer is Major Hunter! He had come ahead and taken a place as a waiter to keep an eye on things. They meet up with Algy and rush back to the airport. At the airport, Bebe sees the Aries contact board the Dornier and depart in a hurry. Biggles, Hunter and Algy arrive too late and they dash for the Islander. They taxi out for take-off but Bebe runs after the aircraft and jumps on board. Biggles is annoyed with Bebe but she has important news. The Dornier carried fake registration covering something else underneath. She shows a drawing of it. According to Major Hunter, the staff at the rocket base had the same insignia on their badges. So the link is confirmed and Raymond was right. Biggles sets the Islander on a course for Buranga. It's a twelve hour flight but nearing the end they are gaining on the Dornier and can see it ahead. However the rocket base has also spotted them and scramble two Focke-Wulf Fw 190s to intercept. Despite Biggles' efforts to evade, the Islander is hit and set on fire. Biggles makes a crash landing in a clearing and they get away. An enemy ground search party is soon on the scene but Biggles and co. are well hidden and the soldiers move off after failing to find anyone, but not before Major Hunter takes out and disarms one of them stealthily in commando style. "I feel naken without a weapon," he tells the rest. Hunter asks Biggles to move on ahead to the plateau where the rocket base is located while he brings up the rear. After crossing jungles and fording a river, Biggles' exhausted group climb up a cliff onto the plateau. He tells Bebe to stay hidden. He would try to get into the control bunker, Ginger and Algy would check out some other buildings. Bigges manages to steal into the bunker--obviously ground control, he thinks. But he is promptly arrested by some guards. They take him through a hidden trap door into an underground chamber which is the mission control of the rocket base. A man named Adolf Rittler appears to be in charge. He tells Biggles the countdown has started. A missile will shortly be launched which is aimed at an International Disarmament Conference in Dakar where many dignateries are gathered. The Americans would blame the Russians for the blast while the Russians would do the opposite. The explosion would set off the Third World War. Rittler also claims he has neo-Nazi units in every country waiting for the war and ready to take power. Biggles is locked up in a room and Ginger joins him shortly thereafter. Their hands are tied behind their backs but even so, they look around for a means of escape. There's a pair of sun glasses. Ginger smashes it with his foot and picks up a shard of glass. Lying on the floor back to back, Ginger manages to cut Biggles' bonds, They get themselves freed just as the door opens. Algy is being brought in. Biggles and Ginger knock out the two guards and take their weapons. They head for mission control. Meanwhile, in London, Raymond has still heard nothing from Biggles but there is a report that his plane had taken off from Corsica heading south. Biggles must be heading for Buranga. Raymond orders the charge which Biggles had attached to the space station to be detonated--this would upset the enemy a bit and may be of some help to Biggles. Over at the rocket base, Rittler is nonplussed. The space station is destroyed but he can still control the missile from the ground. He tells his guards to bring the prisoners to witness the destruction of Dakar. Some soldiers go to the cell and discover the two guards which Biggles had knocked out. They raise the alarm. Biggles and co. find the control room too heavily guarded. They decide to head for the power generators. Perhaps they can cut the electricity. But they are hotly pursued by guards down every corridor and are eventually cornered and recaptured. Meanwhile Major Hunter has caught up with the others and meets Bebe. They sneak past the guards and open the secret trapdoor and make their way down into the underground control complex. Rittler has Biggles, Ginger and Algy brought up to his command dias. It's too late for them to do anything so they might as well watch the missile launch. With the lift off in progress, all eyes are glued on the monitor screens so Biggles seizes the moment to grab Rittler and pull him off his chair. Meanwhile he calls to Algy to shortcircuit his computer, which bursts into flames. A guard sees this and points his rifle at the group on the dias. Biggles has Rittler in front of him. "Shoot! And you'll kill your leader!" Major Hunter and Bebe now rush in from behind the guard and orders him to drop his rifle. Bebe dashes for one of the control consoles and stabs the self-destruct button. The missile explodes in mid-air. All of Rittler's crew in the control room are rounded up and locked up in the cells. Meanwhile Raymond had called the Buranga government who, although sceptical, had sent a group of soldiers in a C-160 Transall to inspect the area. They had spotted the missile being launched and decide to land to investigate. Biggles hands control of the base over to them. He also remembers to thank Bebe for her part in the mission. "I'll eat my words about a place for skirts," he says. Bebe modestly gives the credit to Major Hunter. Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)